[How Does Communication Escalate in Jeopardizing Situations in Psychiatry? - A Multivariate Replication Study].

MOTIVATION: Results of former communication behavior studies in psychiatric jeopardizing situations should be replicated by mean of speech act analysis.

METHODS

The communication of the actors in restaged real jeopardizing situations as well as in simulated alternative scenarios is videotaped, transcribed and analysed using a speech act-based classification system. A multivariate, hypothesis-testing design examines communicative characteristics: changing speaker roles, communicative functions of the speech acts, reactions to speech acts, respective success of speech acts and the degree of escalation.

RESULTS

Escalation is significantly related to who speaks in what way, how people react and the success of communication. The results contribute to a better understanding of the communicative mechanisms of violence escalation in jeopardizing situations and can make them usable for team supervision and de-escalation training.